In 1939, the Spanish Civil War had come to an end, leaving Franco’s regime in charge of rebuilding a country devastated by the conflict. That same year, Pedro Bidagor presented the drafting of the General Urban Development Plan for Madrid at the National Assembly of Architects. The plan aimed to lay down the urban planning foundations for rebuilding the war-torn Spanish capital. The Plan placed special emphasis on the industrial development of the metropolis, proposing a spatial organisation of industry grounded in the capital’s geographic and functional logic. The envisioned city resembled a planetary system: a central urban nucleus encircled by a green belt, around which revolved the so-called ‘satellite settlements’—factory towns conceived to serve the great city. These suburban enclaves were destined to host the largest and most strategic industrial zones, linked to Madrid by an expanding network of roads and railways. The planning of these satellite towns followed a deliberate hierarchy of landscapes. While the northern and western zones sought to preserve the ‘Velázquez landscapes’ and the lush woodlands, the dry, austere plains of the south and east, shaped by the Castilian plateau, were deemed ideal terrain for industrial expansion. Among the southern industrial settlements, one stood out for the scale of its economic and territorial impact: the district of Villaverde.

The roots of Villaverde’s industrialisation can be traced back to the arrival of the railway in 1850 and the emergence of small ceramic factories in the 1930s. However, it was under the Bidagor Plan that Villaverde went from being a small village to become the main productive centre of Madrid. Taking advantage of the availability of large areas of land and the direct connection with the communication lines to the capital, between 1940 and 1970, large industrial complexes of companies such as Marconi, Boetticher y Navarro, Campsa or Barreiros Diesel were installed in the district. The result was a heterogeneous landscape made up of large independent complexes that were semi-isolated from each other but connected to the big city by the network of transport infrastructure.

Industrial development also brought with it demographic growth. The need to house the workers who came from rural areas to work in the new industries resulted in the promotion of large housing colonies by the companies such as those built by Boetticher y Navarro, Marconi or Butano. With all the necessary social facilities, these ‘self-sufficient cities’ promised a dignified life for the workers: housing, gardens, swimming pools, schools and even football pitches.

The early 1970s marked the beginning of Villaverde’s industrial decline. The exhaustion of available strategic land and the rising cost of property brought the district’s once-thriving industrial growth to a halt, stalling population expansion along with it. One by one, companies shut down and their factories were dismantled or left to decay in silence. This process of industrial hollowing out threatened to erase both the material presence and the intangible legacy of the productive activity that had defined Villaverde landscape and identity. Today, Villaverde remains as one of the most significant areas in relation to the social and economic history of Madrid’s industry. Following the guidelines provided by the National Plan for Industrial Heritage, Madrid City Council is working to preserve, restore, or reimagine these remnants of local identity through initiatives such as guided tours, publications on industrial heritage, and the rehabilitation of iconic sites like La Catedral de Boetticher y Navarro, now being transformed into a hub for urban innovation.